Apple and Linux are engaged in battle – a battle to win over disgruntled Windows users. But who will win, and what will the consequences be for the loser? The most commonly held belief amongst Apple and Linux fanboys is that both factions are engaged in some kind of a war with Microsoft. The truth is that if you look at the market share figure for Windows, Mac and Linux, both Mac OS and all the Linux distros that have ever been released are dwarfed by Windows.

Unless I misunderstood your problem. The solution is to put in the OS X installation disk and select "Reset Password" this allows you to reset the root/admin password in a couple of clicks. No re-install or command line required.

You understand the problem, but your solution assumes that the Mac user who didn't have the wisdom to record his/her passwords has held onto the installation disk.

Also, with some versions of OSX, your solution might take more than a few clicks, and it can be counter-intuitive and frightening -- in some instances, one has to move through installation pages that seem to start the process of reinstalling (like getting the old Mac "bomb" icon).

The solution that I used also requires no re-install, with just a "^-s" during reboot, plus two or three short console commands. Depending on the OSX version (and on which console commands worked) one might have to walk through the new-user wizard to create a new admin user/password.